Teaching

Teaching History:

Dr. Shidmehr is an instructor at Douglas Colleges’ Department of Language, Literature and Performing Arts.
Since 2015, she has also been an instructor at SFU’s Liberal Arts and 55+ Program, where she teaches courses on life writing, essay writing, and on history, culture, literature, and cinema of modern Iran. Visit her page
Her previous teaching includes teaching in literary workshops in Iranian community in Vancouver and workshops offered at various women’s conferences and literary gatherings of the Iranian diaspora around the world.
In Iran, she was a high school teacher for a year.

Fall 2022 Course at Douglas College:

  • Introduction to Writing Poetry (CRWR 1101)

Fall 2022 Course at Simon Fraser University:

  • Fundamentals of Personal Narrative
Courses  Taught in the past:
  • Life Stories Tapestry: A Collective Writing Experience
  • Writing Our Lives as Stories
  • Two Renowned Female Poets of Modern Iran: Their Lives and Poetry
  • Life Writing: Creating a Self for Our Life Story
  • Life Writing: Exploring and Recreating the Self 
  • Collective Life Writing: Literary Metissage as an Ethos for Our Times
  • Poetry of Immigration 
  • Writing an Essay for the Liberal Arts Certificate 
  • Writing Fundamentals Workshop  
  • Iran’s Modern History: From the Qajars to the Aftermath of the Revolution
  • Asghar Farhadi and His Cinema: Positive Critiques and Controversies
  • Iranian Women and Their Struggles Portrayed in Film
  • Iranian Women and Their Struggles Portrayed in Film
  • Iranian Women and Their Demands for Change Portrayed in Film
  • Modern Iran through Cinema

LITERARY WORK EXPERIENCE:

Writer-in-Residence Positions: 

  •  At the City of Richmond (October 2017 – November 2017)
  • At Regina Public Library (September 2015-May 2016)

Literary Contest Judge / Jury / Reader Positions: 

  • Judge for the 2016 West End Writers Group Contest
  • Judge for the 2015 Saskatchewan Poetry Society Open Theme Contest
  • Reader for the 2015 CBC Poetry Prize
  • Juror for the 2015 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers